Florida man accused of leaving dead animals on Parkland shooting memorial

PARKLAND, Fla. — Deputies in Florida arrested a man whom they said left several dead animals at a memorial designed to remember victims of the deadly shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School.

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In a criminal complaint, Broward County sheriff’s deputies said on several days, dead animals were found on a memorial bench dedicated to those killed in the 2018 shooting. Deputies said on July 20, a dead duck was found on the bench with its chest open, organs removed, and head flattened. The next day, a crossing guard called deputies to report a dead raccoon on the same bench. The raccoon’s remains were untouched, but deputies said there was no evidence to suggest the raccoon was killed at the memorial. On July 31, a deputy on patrol found a dead opossum on the memorial bench.

Deputies said surveillance video of the area led them to a white Nissan, which they pulled over during a traffic stop for having illegally tinted windows. Inside front passenger’s side of the the car, which was driven by Robert Mondragon, officers said there appeared to be bird feathers and blood. In the criminal complaint, deputies said that when questioned about it, Mondragon told them “he had a dead bird in this car because he likes the smell, and he likes the metal and blood smell that emit from the dead animal.”

During their investigation, deputies said they found evidence that revealed Mondragon’s obsession with school shooters “both real and fictional,” WPLG reported. Deputies told the station that his facial tattoos were meant to resemble those of a fictional character from FX’s American Horror Story.

Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony told the Sun-Sentinel that Mondragon had been on their radar for several years, and that he had “a desire to create an active shooter event in our school system.”

Detectives told WPLG that they found text messages about school shootings and internet searchers about school shooters, how to breach steel doors, pipe bombs, and slang terms for killing police.

Tony told the Sun-Sentinel that Mondragon is “the most severe individual we’ve been able to apprehend and take off the streets.”

Court paperwork shows that Mondragon is on probation for indecent exposure and battery. In the criminal complaint, detectives shared photos of an Instagram account that allegedly belongs to Mondragon, showing him holding a Yugoslavian SKS rifle, in violation of his probation.

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